The West Chester Daily Local News is reporting that a Democratic challenger will take on three-term U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-6th Dist.
The sacrificial lamb, I mean candidate, is Bob Roggio, a 60-year-old businessman whose previous political experience has been working on the campaigns of liberal icons such as Bob Casey, John Kerry and Dan Wofford.
I've lost count of how many potential challengers for Gerlach have emerged in the past six months, but I believe Roggio might be the fifth or sixth choice of Democrats to take on Gerlach.
Gerlach was one of the few Republican Congressmen from Pennsylvania to survive the 2006 Democratic tide that swept the Dems into power in Washington, D.C.
Roggio has his work cut out for him. Lois Murphy, who lost twice to Gerlach, ran the same campaign, attempting to link Gerlach to George W. Bush.
That won't work in 2008 because Bush is no longer a whipping boy for Democrats and more importantly, Gerlach has distanced himself from the president by voting with moderate Democrats on many issues.
Gerlach has had three tough races to keep the 6th District, but he's in the best position in years to hold the seat. He is a moderate Republican in a sprawling Southeastern Pennsylvania district where Democrats have made inroads.
What the Democrats haven't figure out yet is that Gerlach needs to be beaten in Berks County and that's not going to happen when his opponent is another suburban Philadelphia liberal.
The 6th District covers Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties. In each of his three runs, Gerlach has lost Montgomery County and narrowly won his home county of Chester. The race has been decided in Berks County. In 2006, Gerlach defeated Lois Murphy by a 54 percent to 46 percent margin in Berks.
And now that Congressional Democrats have more seats in Pennsylvania, they will have to defend those seats. The money will go to help the 2006 freshman class keep the seats. Roggio, or whichever Democrats wins the nomination, will have an uphill battle to unseat Gerlach.
No comments:
Post a Comment